Steve James is the Sunday Telegraph's cricket columnist. He also writes on rugby. He played cricket for Glamorgan and England but is just as proud to have represented Lydney and Gloucestershire at rugby.

How good has Alastair Cook been in Bangladesh?

We shouldn’t get too carried away by anything on England’s tour of Bangladesh. ‘It’s only Bangladesh’ might sound horribly condescending, but it’s undoubtedly true. So while Eoin Morgan’s unbeaten century today was an utterly brilliant innings, it does not quite fit the “world-class” description one or two of the over-excited Sky commentators were attributing to it.

But, having said that, I have been intrigued by Alastair Cook’s batting and its significance in the grander scheme of things. His one-day stuff clearly has improved. I thought his intent in both matches so far was excellent. He is still predominantly leg-sided, but in the powerplay overs that is not that easily contained and he has obviously added power to all his strokes. He played one extra-cover drive in the second match today on the up (what ‘up’ there was on a low pitch) that was astounding.

His exclusion from England’s 30-man world Twenty20 squad was interesting. I never expected him to make the final 15-man cut but surely that has already been decided, so why didn’t the selectors just drop Cook’s name in the 30? It would have stopped some awkward questions yesterday. Like Andrew Strauss, Cook’s game is simply not suited to Twenty20, although he might point out that his Twenty20 strike rate is 127 and Jonathan Trott, who is in the 30-man squad, has one of only 114. And Craig Kieswetter’s is only 130. Mind you, Michael Lumb, who must now be in with a strong shout of selection, has a rate of 148.

I wrote in my Sunday Telegraph column last weekend that it was unthinkable that Cook and Strauss could play in the same England one-day side. I don’t necessarily disagree now, but I must admit that I have been doing some thinking on the subject over the last couple of days.

How about Strauss back in the middle order where he played so well against Australia and others so many moons ago? I used to like him there, if only because it was a move I made at county level. Put the youngsters (and Robert Croft) at the top of the order to smack it, let the old sweats sort out the mess (or a canter home) later. That was the philosophy of a reasonably successful Glamorgan one-day team just around the Millennium.

You certainly could not have Cook and Strauss opening together. But if Strauss does drop down, who drops out? Matt Prior? He played superbly in both matches, I thought. And Kieswetter can hardly do with the added burden of the gloves at the moment. On that subject Kieswetter has clearly struggled. But, please, can we give him time? It’s not an easy job. Thoughts please.